Gettin' my Maine pellets swapped free !!!!

[muss]

Finally had enuff & called the dealer where i had purchased the 5 tons & told them i had it with the Maine Athen pellets & would like a swap but had no way of bringing them down there . Told her i had 2 still wrapped in garage & i would use up the 1 i had down cellar . They said no problem, they will come up to swap the 2 i have . Suppose to come up tomorrow . They had been waiting for almost 2 weeks for their supply . Told them they had charged me $30 a ton delivery so it's gonna be a free swap Muss

 

[hossthehermit]

Finally had enuff & called the dealer where i had purchased the 5 tons & told them i had it with the Maine Athen pellets & would like a swap but had no way of bringing them down there . Told her i had 2 still wrapped in garage & i would use up the 1 i had down cellar . They said no problem, they will come up to swap the 2 i have . Suppose to come up tomorrow . They had been waiting for almost 2 weeks for their supply . Told them they had charged me $30 a ton delivery so it's gonna be a free swap Muss

Told ya you could sweet talk 'em into it, Muss. What are they gonna swap 'em FOR, that's the ?

 

[pellet0708]

Finally had enuff & called the dealer where i had purchased the 5 tons & told them i had it with the Maine Athen pellets & would like a swap but had no way of bringing them down there . Told her i had 2 still wrapped in garage & i would use up the 1 i had down cellar . They said no problem, they will come up to swap the 2 i have . Suppose to come up tomorrow . They had been waiting for almost 2 weeks for their supply . Told them they had charged me $30 a ton delivery so it's gonna be a free swap Muss

I'm not being wise but wasn't it you muss that said we just needed to learn how to burn our stoves correctly and these pellets would burn fine. Did you get into a bad batch?
Maybe it was someone else. Anyway, let us know how the new ones burn. Nobody has been real sure about those either.

 

[sparkydog00]

Finally had enuff & called the dealer where i had purchased the 5 tons & told them i had it with the Maine Athen pellets & would like a swap but had no way of bringing them down there . Told her i had 2 still wrapped in garage & i would use up the 1 i had down cellar . They said no problem, they will come up to swap the 2 i have . Suppose to come up tomorrow . They had been waiting for almost 2 weeks for their supply . Told them they had charged me $30 a ton delivery so it's gonna be a free swap Muss

Hope you get different pellets than the New and Improved Maine Woods Pellets. They are neither new or improved...they are just longer. Same crappy heat output and copious ash...not premium pellets.
I swapped out my 1.5 tons (bought 3 tons) for NE Pellet. My dealer understood the problems with these pellets....no charge delivery.
Was a pain because I had them stacked in my basement...hated moving those suckers around.
But all is good in my pellet world now!

 

[mjbrown]

Finally had enuff & called the dealer where i had purchased the 5 tons & told them i had it with the Maine Athen pellets & would like a swap but had no way of bringing them down there . Told her i had 2 still wrapped in garage & i would use up the 1 i had down cellar . They said no problem, they will come up to swap the 2 i have . Suppose to come up tomorrow . They had been waiting for almost 2 weeks for their supply . Told them they had charged me $30 a ton delivery so it's gonna be a free swap Muss

Hope you get different pellets than the New and Improved Maine Woods Pellets. They are neither new or improved...they are just longer. Same crappy heat output and copious ash...not premium pellets.
I swapped out my 1.5 tons (bought 3 tons) for NE Pellet. My dealer understood the problems with these pellets....no charge delivery.
Was a pain because I had them stacked in my basement...hated moving those suckers around.
But all is good in my pellet world now!

sparky,
you are right, they are not PREMIUM pellets and yes the ash is the same...but as for the heat out put from the summer batch and the new i have to beg to differ.during the cold snap we had recently, i had my feed rate set at 3 , and my house never went below 70 degrees.i found the new pellets to be better in that aspect.i burned approx. a ton the month of january like alot of people,so i didnt have to burn more to get the same results as the rest of the pellet burners here.

the new batch ,from what i have seen is lighter in color as well, not as green or dark colored as the old.a friend of mine bought 3 ton of these. he bought the first ton in sept-oct. and put them in his garage...then he bought a ton in november and another in december.he started burning the newest first and finally reached the first bought .when he hit those he noticed a big differance...called the mill and they are going to exchange this week end.

i am not trying to discredit/ disrespect what you are saying or trying to start a peeing contest with you, just trying to relate what i have experianced.i have burned them all winter and i agree with what you say about the summer batch.please keep in mind that mwp is trying to improve,but they need to have the growing pains like everyone else.


mike

 

[Xena]

Kewl beans muss! Hope it all works out in your favor.

 

[j00fek]

glad to see that the dealer is going to help you out, i have 14 bags of the great summer blend and then im DONE with ashens pellets

 

[sparkydog00]

Finally had enuff & called the dealer where i had purchased the 5 tons & told them i had it with the Maine Athen pellets & would like a swap but had no way of bringing them down there . Told her i had 2 still wrapped in garage & i would use up the 1 i had down cellar . They said no problem, they will come up to swap the 2 i have . Suppose to come up tomorrow . They had been waiting for almost 2 weeks for their supply . Told them they had charged me $30 a ton delivery so it's gonna be a free swap Muss

Hope you get different pellets than the New and Improved Maine Woods Pellets. They are neither new or improved...they are just longer. Same crappy heat output and copious ash...not premium pellets.
I swapped out my 1.5 tons (bought 3 tons) for NE Pellet. My dealer understood the problems with these pellets....no charge delivery.
Was a pain because I had them stacked in my basement...hated moving those suckers around.
But all is good in my pellet world now!

sparky,
you are right, they are not PREMIUM pellets and yes the ash is the same...but as for the heat out put from the summer batch and the new i have to beg to differ.during the cold snap we had recently, i had my feed rate set at 3 , and my house never went below 70 degrees.i found the new pellets to be better in that aspect.i burned approx. a ton the month of january like alot of people,so i didnt have to burn more to get the same results as the rest of the pellet burners here.

the new batch ,from what i have seen is lighter in color as well, not as green or dark colored as the old.a friend of mine bought 3 ton of these. he bought the first ton in sept-oct. and put them in his garage...then he bought a ton in november and another in december.he started burning the newest first and finally reached the first bought .when he hit those he noticed a big differance...called the mill and they are going to exchange this week end.

i am not trying to discredit/ disrespect what you are saying or trying to start a peeing contest with you, just trying to relate what i have experianced.i have burned them all winter and i agree with what you say about the summer batch.please keep in mind that mwp is trying to improve,but they need to have the growing pains like everyone else.


mike

No...i won't get into a peeing match with anyone on this forum. No point!
The Summer batch was almost unburnable. there were black specks throughout the entire pellet. Suspect that was bark...or worse!. The latest batch...while they were devoid of the black specks...still produced copious amounts of ash...so much so that the burn pot needed 150 to 200% more attention then any other "premium pellet" on the market. So truthfully there really was no difference between the Summer blend and the current blend...neither was what I was supposed to have purchased...premium quality pellets. I have been burned by this company more than once...it will never happen again.

 

[Lorne41]

Hi folks, I'm fairly new to the forum but have been getting some really useful info on pellet stoves and pellets for months thanks to many of you responding to this thread. I've had the same problems with Maine made pellets, they're not premium no matter what's stamped on the bags. I bought a ton of Corinth Pellets and 1 ton of Athens pellets and they are both inferior.
They both have more ash then they should and they both form a large clinker in my Englander 25-PDVC stove, blacken the door glass up, and don't generate enough BTU output. I've tried 3 other brands also and the best available in the Bangor area so far is the Blazer Premium ( softwood )sold at the HD in Bangor. They burn HOT with little ash, no clinkers and throw heat!
It's like night and day compared to the hardwood pellets from local pellet mills. With the Corinth and Athens pellets I've had to run my stove on 4-4 to 6-6 to keep my house at 70 degrees, I'm running it on 2-2 with the Blazers and it's 78 inside and outside it's zero. I hope that this might help someone else locally that might be having the same problems.
I'm going to stick with softwood pellets for now on!

 

[Steveo]

My P68 burns the Maine pellets just fine but I do have to clean the burn pot more often. I wont buy more of these pellets because I am lazy and do not want to clean any more than I have to lol.

 

[compressedwoodsupplier]

The pellets are much better then the earlier batches. The definition of a "Premium Pellet" is to be less then 1% ash content.. The last test i know about was .9%ash content. so Technically it is a premium pellet.... That being said they are a pain in the butt to burn... I have tried others and will be burning and selling different pellets next year

 

[Deed]

I have a Mt. Vernon insert, have burned the athens pellets, good heat, more ash then other pellets. Have to empty tray and vacum box every several days. Not a big deal. takes more time to get the vacum out. new company they have to get the bugs out. Springbrook is selling the returned bags for $3.50 a bag. I burn a bag a day. It is all i use to heat my house. $24.50 a week to heat my house with what everybody calls crappy pellets in the dead of winter, here in central Maine. I'm not complaining. I apreciate you all returning your pellets to Springbrook, I'm benefiting from it.

 

[slls]

A good stove will burn most any grade pellets, it's the marginal stoves that have problems.

 

[sparkydog00]

A good stove will burn most any grade pellets, it's the marginal stoves that have problems.

It has nothing to do with the quality of the stove. These pellets stink...They are not and never have been premium grade pellets.
They cannot be burned in any top feeding stove due to the ash amount and consistency of the ash. They might be a good deal at 3.50 a bag...but the unending cleaning and feeding problems that these pellets cause my stove ... the extra money that a true premium pellet is well worth it.
I was emptying my ash vac almost once a month while burning these sub standard pellets. Using a true premium pellet I will empty my ash vac once a season. So Athens (Ashens) pellets produces approx. 10x the ash of New England Pellets....

 

[sparkydog00]

I have a Mt. Vernon insert, have burned the athens pellets, good heat, more ash then other pellets. Have to empty tray and vacum box every several days. Not a big deal. takes more time to get the vacum out. new company they have to get the bugs out. Springbrook is selling the returned bags for $3.50 a bag. I burn a bag a day. It is all i use to heat my house. $24.50 a week to heat my house with what everybody calls crappy pellets in the dead of winter, here in central Maine. I'm not complaining. I apreciate you all returning your pellets to Springbrook, I'm benefiting from it.

Enjoy cleaning your stove

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

The pellets are much better then the earlier batches. The definition of a "Premium Pellet" is to be less then 1% ash content.. The last test i know about was .9%ash content. so Technically it is a premium pellet.... That being said they are a pain in the butt to burn... I have tried others and will be burning and selling different pellets next year

The percentage of ash isn't the only thing that determines if the pellets are premium. That having been said I put several bags through my stove (which I see your company is selling as well) and they seemed fine (this batch was a late January vintage). I got tired waiting for hoss to do his thing. In fact I completed a 96 hour burn that included 24 hours with the July vintage. They are making progress and hopefully it will continue. However they got ahead of themselves and are going to pay for that for a long time.

In case anyone is wondering I'll be doing a much longer test starting next week as I didn't buy enough to run a test through to pile up. The ash was much easier for the stove to handle and was less than the old stuff I was burning. The pellets also disintegrated much faster and wasn't full of what looked like bark. I didn't do a moisture check, however I didn't notice any moisture boil off when the pellets were burning which I could see with the old batch.

So what pellets are you planing on having next year?

 

[slls]

A good stove will burn most any grade pellets, it's the marginal stoves that have problems.

It has nothing to do with the quality of the stove. These pellets stink...They are not and never have been premium grade pellets.
They cannot be burned in any top feeding stove due to the ash amount and consistency of the ash. They might be a good deal at 3.50 a bag...but the unending cleaning and feeding problems that these pellets cause my stove ... the extra money that a true premium pellet is well worth it.
I was emptying my ash vac almost once a month while burning these sub standard pellets. Using a true premium pellet I will empty my ash vac once a season. So Athens (Ashens) pellets produces approx. 10x the ash of New England Pellets....

Once a month is too much? I see you don't list your model stove anywhere. Using a vacuum must mean no ash pan?

 

[compressedwoodsupplier]

OMG people stop comparing pellets each one is different.. So the comment said earlier that athens pellets arent new england pellets guess what your right they are not New england pellets never been advertised that way. Think about it New company will have growing pains so we will have to stick with it and wait for the change or change it and burn new england pellets....

 

[slls]

How you look at how pellets perform has a lot to with if you are a seller or buyer. A dealer in my area is selling Maine Woods Athens $40 a ton cheaper than Energex, I would say that says it all.

 

[Lorne41]

How you look at how pellets perform has a lot to with if you are a seller or buyer. A dealer in my area is selling Maine Woods Athens $40 a ton cheaper than Energex, I would say that says it all.

I agree with you there, demand determines price. I'm new to the forum, and the reason I watch it is because I bought a pellet stove last year and had questions about running my stove and pellets that I found answers for here. I look here to gain more knowledge and that also includes avoiding poor quality pellets of which we have an abundance of here in Maine. I had a ton of Athens and a ton of Corinth pellets I bought last Fall, I wish I knew then what I know now--- I would not buy Athens or Corinth pellets again unless they improve their quality dramatically. If other companies can make quality pellets then there is no reason why our local pellet manufacturers can't do the same. If after this amount of time they're still making crappy pellets it's because that's the way they do business, GIGO ( garbage in garbage out ). Thanks to helpful folks like you and others here, I can avoid the bad ones and get the most out of my pellet stove!

 

[sparkydog00]

A good stove will burn most any grade pellets, it's the marginal stoves that have problems.

It has nothing to do with the quality of the stove. These pellets stink...They are not and never have been premium grade pellets.
They cannot be burned in any top feeding stove due to the ash amount and consistency of the ash. They might be a good deal at 3.50 a bag...but the unending cleaning and feeding problems that these pellets cause my stove ... the extra money that a true premium pellet is well worth it.
I was emptying my ash vac almost once a month while burning these sub standard pellets. Using a true premium pellet I will empty my ash vac once a season. So Athens (Ashens) pellets produces approx. 10x the ash of New England Pellets....

Once a month is too much? I see you don't list your model stove anywhere. Using a vacuum must mean no ash pan?

I have a Harmen Accentra Insert. It has a fairly large ash pan. They advertise you can burn a 1/2 ton before emptying it. Never let it go that far...but with the Athens (Ashens) pellets the ash pan would have to be emptyed every every 4 to 5 days. That would be uaround every 10 bags.
Not only that...the consistancy of the ash was more sand like...heavier. They use something other than wood in the pellet.
If they sold them with the term crappy ...or sub standard on the bag instead of premium then there wouldn't be much of a problem. Oh and 40 bucks to clean my stove 10 times more often...I will pay the 40 bucks extra to get pellets that are made of wood!

 

[save$]

Shipping charges play a huge influence in the cost. When you look at Energex, Lg etc. they come from a long ways away.
Athens are way less expensive to those who buy them near the plant, ($215) but add $40 + once you get away from that area. I know several people who are burning them and go back for more. I tried a few bags when I first bought my stove but opted for Energex. At that time, the dealer was out of Athens that were going for 235/ton, but was able to get me the Energex for 249/ton. That was just as things were heating up on getting in on a stove or pellets. I have no complaint about Energex or my stove, but I have seen comments from others not so positive.
I have learned a lot from this forum. Unless you are very independent, when you shop around, always include the reputation and access to a competent dealer when you factor in total cost.

 

[slls]

In June 08 the same place was selling Energex for $220 a ton, picked up in Hampden.